My Generation X
by MegsPencer
Summary: This is my generation x.  Something a little different.  Try it and see what you think.  The story is rated by chapter. _work in process_
1. A Scholastic History

1 Prelude: A Scholastic History  
  
As a young man, Charles Xavier discovered he was able to read the minds of other people. For years, he traveled the world, studying genetics. While serving in the military during World War Two, he met Erik Lensherr, and was able to discuss his ideas about meta-humans.  
  
The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters opened in 1981 with one staff member, Professor Charles Xavier, and five students ranging from 16 to 18 years of age. It remained with a strong scholastic bent for the next two years, until Xavier was believed to be killed. From that point on, the school because more of a training ground for the superhero team the X-Men than anything else, though the scholastic elements remained for years.  
  
In 1991, the team the New Mutants was formed as a continuation of the original concept of the institute as a school for young mutants. This group, however, suffered from numerous changes in leadership and was eventually reconstituted as the team X-Force.  
  
In 1998, an alien race called the Phalanx kidnapped four young mutants, and attempted to kidnap two others, including a young member of the X-Men. The kidnappers attempted to assimilate the mutants into their collective consciousness, but were thwarted by the efforts of the former X-Men Banshee, the prisoner Sabretooth and a patient of Charles Xavier's, Emma Frost, formerly the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and former headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy. The young kidnappees escaped only with the sacrifice of young Blink, who was caught in the backlash of her own mutant power.  
  
Soon afterwards, Xavier tapped Banshee and Frost to reopen her Massachusetts Academy. At one time, this school had served as a training ground for the Hellions, a team of young mutants under the control of the Hellfire Club. In 1997, however, nearly all of the Hellions were killed and the White Queen was placed in a coma which would last nearly a year.  
  
The Massachusetts Academy had originally only seven students led by Banshee and the White Queen. They included the survivors of the Phalanx incident, Chamber, a 19 year old from England, and Penance, a mysterious girl who turned up at their doorstep early on. Later in that year, Refrax (17) and Hex (17) filled out the first class of the new Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. They called themselves Generation X, though they were discouraged from actual combat situations  
  
In the aftermath of the success of the Massachusetts Academy and the Onslaught incident, Xavier decided that the time was right to expand the Xavier Institutes. In 1999, two more Academies were opened, one in New York adjacent to the original school, and one in Connecticut. The school in New York catered to both young and older mutants with abilities that made them a danger to themselves, or to others. This facility would become even more valuable at the end of 2000, when the Muir Island Research Center in Scotland was destroyed.  
  
The Connecticut Academy was an equally ambitious project, serving as a boarding school for students with abilities that were relatively harmless. This school would grow to be the largest of the three, opening their doors to non-mutants who needed homes, and even to entire families, and also the strongest academically, since the classes had to focus far less on development of mutant abilities.  
  
In 1999, a new class entered the Massachusetts Academy. In 2000, there was no new class, but the first death when Synch was killed in a terrorist bombing of the school.  
  
In 2001, a third class entered the Massachusetts Academy. One of the members of this class was Sarah Annabella Worthington, known as Sera or Seraphim, the only child of the X-Man Warren Worthington III, who had spent most of her young life on the Muir Island Research Center. Soon afterward the arrival of this new class, disaster struck in Genosha. An extensive bombing strike by sentinels wiped out about 50 percent of the world's mutant population. Nearly 90 percent of Genosha's population was killed, and many of those surviving flocked to Xavier's care.  
  
This tragedy was swiftly followed by the public "coming out" of Professor Xavier. The logic of this decision was greatly questioned, though it was only later revealed to have been made under duress.  
  
This led to threats against the Massachusetts Academy that placed the students at great risk. After the death of Synch the year before, the X- Men decided to re-integrate the Massachusetts Academy with the original Xavier Institute in New York, while moving the New York Academy to an off shore site and the Connecticut Academy to a large track of land just over the Canadian border.  
  
The Xavier Institute reopened in Westchester with over 150 students, many of them Genoshan refugees.  
  
  
  
Our story takes place after the death of Synch and the new class of 2001, but before the attack on Genosha. 


	2. Some Skin

One: Some Skin [R- language, adult situations]  
  
"What are you doing Jasmine?"  
  
"Nothing. Any word?" Jasmine-Nerise grew noticeably tense. Paige Guthrie was her best friend, but even she did not understand the young woman completely. This matter made Paige nervous. It had been some hours since the news had arrived that Jasmine-Nerise's mother, the terrorist Mystique, had escaped custody after her attempt to assassinate presidential candidate Robert Kelly had ended in her near death at the hands of her foster daughter Rogue. Paige wondered if her teammate had known about her mother's plans, if she had somehow even been involved.  
  
"I hate this. I wish I knew where she was." She turned away. Paige felt immediately guilty for her thoughts. She had never seen her friend this way. Jasmine-Nerise was an odd girl, never quite comfortable with the others in personal situations, but in combat the perfect team member. How the two had become close, Paige could only guess, but she was glad of it. Of the other girls in the class, Monet was always treating others as though they were lower class citizens, Jubilee seemed to be friends mainly with the boys, and Penance was, well... Until a few months ago, Penance had been totally mute, and almost more like an animal than a young girl.  
  
Yes, Paige thought, as she watched Jasmine-Nerise pace, she liked this girl, but she didn't understand what drove her. Paige came from a mining family in the backwaters of Kentucky, where her father had died when she was young, leaving her mother to raise more than a half a dozen children on her own. Paige had been the third oldest, and remembered a family full of laughter, love and hard work. How could that compare to Jasmine's early life? Raised by a shapeshifter and a precognitive that were the leaders of a mutant terrorist organization, Jasmine-Nerise had, as far as Paige knew, never known her father. She had two half-brothers, one of whom didn't know she existed, with a foster sister and a half-brother in the X-Men. Paige had gown up worshipping the X-Men, and Jasmine-Nerise had grown up seeing them as both adversaries, and family. How odd.  
  
She never spoke of her views of her mother's activities. She'd been 12 when she'd left her mother's home, old enough to be aware of what her mother was doing, old enough to draw her own conclusions.  
  
"I know what you're thinking," Jasmine-Nerise said suddenly. Paige looked up guiltily. She knew her friend caught the expression. "I don't care. Mystique is my parent, and I love her. I don't care what she did; I love her, because she's family. The same as Rogue, or Kurt..."  
  
"Or Graydon?" Paige couldn't resist asking.  
  
"Graydon's dead. And he isn't family. He would have killed us without thinking about it, just because we're mutants. He doesn't care about family."  
  
"Ah've never seen that kind of hatred. Not until I came here. Back on the farm, we were all Guthries, mutants or not."  
  
"Do you miss your family?" Paige smiled.  
  
"Yea. Ah consider mahself lucky, though. Ah see these new kids, and so many of them are running away from their families, or been thrown out. Ah can't image not loving a child just because he was different. Ah guess Ah agree with you; family is family, and you have to love 'em, no matter what happens." There was a long silence. "We should go," Paige said finally. "Meeting starts at ten."  
  
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The students of the Massachusetts Academy filed out of their instructors' office just before midnight, exhausted from a long day. Most thought only of falling into their warm beds, but Jasmine-Nerise found herself thinking again about Mystique. She snuck silently into the White Queen's empty office. Their headmistress was in Genosha teaching at a high school there, and the headmaster, Sean Cassidy, had run off a few weeks before that. The school was now under the control of Eduard and Sarah Jamon.  
  
Things had been strange around here, she thought as she dialed up the Xavier Institute on the videophone.  
  
"Xavier Institute."  
  
"Hey Wolverine." The burly man did not smile. "Is my brother there?" He nodded.  
  
"Hang on." The viewer went blank for a moment, and then Kurt Wagner's face filled the screen.  
  
"Why're you calling so late sister?" he asked with a smile on his dark face. "You know we go to bed early."  
  
"I wanted to know if you'd heard anything about Mystique." His face became a mask.  
  
"Nothing. The government's tracking her, but I doubt they'll have any luck." He sighed. "A lot of the X-Men still want her dead after what she did to Moira, and I can't blame them for it. How are you taking everything?"  
  
"Not so well I guess. I don't know what to think. I love her, and I hate her, and I miss Moira, but I miss Mystique more… I wish it didn't have to be a choice. I wish… She knew how much Moira meant to me, and she still… There isn't anyone I can talk to about it here. Most of them don't know anything about what happened, and even fewer of them understand my connection to Moira and Mystique." She rested her head in her hands and sighed.  
  
"I wish I could do more for you, child." Jasmine-Nerise smiled.  
  
"I know you do Kurt. Let me know if anything comes up?" He nodded. "Don't let them kill her." She looked deep into his yellow eyes. "Promise me Kurt. She's all I have left now that mother is dead."  
  
"That's not true. You have me, and you have Rogue, wherever she is. But I'll do what I can."  
  
"Promise!"  
  
"All I can do is my best. I know what she means to you. Goodnight Jasmine." She nodded.  
  
"Goodnight Kurt."  
  
"Xavier's out." She sat at the desk for a time, deep in thought.  
  
"Who was that?" Jasmine-Nerise turned calmly. Angelo's skin appeared ghost-like in the pale light.  
  
"What're you doing here?" He raised the skin above his eye where an eyebrow should have been.  
  
"I could ask you the same."  
  
"What are you _doing_ here?" she asked again. There was a tone of command in her voice her teammate couldn't fight.  
  
"I was talking to Ed and saw the light from the monitor and was curious," he answered reflexively. Then he stepped back. "How…? What…?" She gazed at him for a long time. "That's not cool girl. Not very nice."  
  
"Well, we could play the 'what are you doing here' game forever." He nodded and stepped closer.  
  
"You must be worried," he said, stretching an arm to touch her shoulder. Her insides went cold with the tone in his voice.  
  
"Don't you dare pity me Angelo. I don't need it."  
  
"You don't need friends?" She was silent. "I understand what you're going through, Jasmine."  
  
"You don't understand anything."  
  
"Look, fuck you okay. I grew up on the streets. You think you're the only one with family problems? Everyone who ever loved me thinks I'm dead, okay? So just fuck you." He turned away in disgust.  
  
"Well at the risk of sounding redundant, fuck you too."  
  
"Have to take a rain check on that one. Later." She advanced angrily on him.  
  
"Why wait?" She stared at him, eyes flaming. Angelo suddenly realized how attractive she was, and how close they were. He felt strongly aroused, and wondered if she was controlling him again. His breath caught.  
  
"You can't be serious." She closed the distance between them, standing so close their thighs were touching and he could smell her, like darkness and incense.  
  
"Do I look like I'm serious?" She didn't smile as she ran a hand gently from his cheek to his stomach, then tucked her hand under his shirt and traced a path up his back. He flinched and drew away.  
  
"No. No way." Her face grew even colder. He thought he saw a flash of yellow in her pale eyes.  
  
"Fine. I won't tell anyone Espinosa doesn't have the balls to back up his mouth." He stiffened and took her roughly in his arms.  
  
"I didn't say that." She knew that she had him.  
  
"Forget you. You couldn't handle me."  
  
"I can take anything you can dish out." She leaned closer, her face inches from his.  
  
"Prove it. Now." He kissed her harshly, with a confidence and an anger that suited him. She replied with an energy that shocked him, and he knew he had lost. 


	3. The Beginning of the End

Two: The Beginning of the End [PG-13- language]  
  
6:29 AM  
  
Paige woke early that morning, as always. From her corner, Jasmine-Nerise watched her roommate dress and stretch in preparation for her morning run.  
  
"Are you there, Jaz?" Paige asked. She glanced around the room, seeing Jasmine's body lying in her bed, but knowing that the girl's mind was likely elsewhere.  
  
"Morning," Jasmine-Nerise said, concentrating slightly to make herself audible and visible. "Sleep well?"  
  
"Like a rock. You?"  
  
"Why do you even ask?" Paige laughed, sitting on the ground in a near split and touching her toes.  
  
"Because I care." Jasmine drifted into invisibility and floated to the window, looking out on the school grounds.  
  
"Something weird in the air today," she said.  
  
"Did you say something?" Paige asked, glancing in her direction, but seeing nothing. The witch phased back into sight.  
  
"No, nothing. Just a weird feeling." She paused, extending her senses outwards to touch the minds of the other students, mostly sleeping. "I'm going to go," she said softly. "Have a good run." Paige nodded, and lay back to begin a set of sit-ups.  
  
Jasmine-Nerise directed her astral form out of her room and through the wall into the next room. The students there slept peacefully. She sent her form into the middle of the school and stretched out, searching in ever extending circles for the source of her discomfort. She felt sleeping minds, waking minds, a couple making love, a man just going to bed after a long night of drinking, but nothing that could have threatened her. As the circle expanded, she could no longer detect distinctive minds, but only general patterns of emotions.  
  
For a moment she paused to appreciate the beauty of what she was seeing. The colors were white and blue, with sparks appearing where people were waking up for the day. She spread her mind over all of Massachusetts and through the rest New England, but could find no sense of a threat that would account for her earlier feeling.  
  
Finally, her mind aching, she pulled herself back together, taking care to ground herself slowly as she returned to a more limited consciousness. Returning too quickly could be damaging, a shock like putting a tropical plant into the snow. Back at the school, she curled her mental self into a tight ball in the corner of her bedroom, perched above her corporal body, and drifted into a relaxing mindless state that was almost like sleep.  
  
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7:15 AM  
  
The first alarm jolted Jubilee out of bed. Though she often complained about waking up early, she'd been doing it for so long it was hard for her to sleep in late even on weekends. At first she thought something was wrong, but then realized that it was only her alarm clock. She stood, stretched and yawned. Looking at her roommate's bed, she wondered if Monet had already left, or if she had never come to bed. She felt a twinge of jealousy, but stifled it.  
  
It had been nearly a year ago when Jubilee had realized that Monet and Everett were going together. It had been nearly a year since her heart had been broken not once but twice. She'd wanted Ev for her own, but he'd fallen for Monet instead, Monet who was so beautiful, so perfect. And then he'd died. The two girls eventually become close again, and decided to share a room when the school had accepted more students. Jubilee still missed Ev dearly, but had grown close to other friends. Monet acted the same as ever, but removed herself from the others whenever she could. There were many nights when she didn't come back to the room, and when questioned where she'd been, refused to answer.  
  
Jubilee walked down to the kitchen, where she, Kurt and Angelo were on breakfast duty. Jubilee greeted them both and began setting the table in preparation for the arrival of the other thirty-odd residents of the school.  
  
"Sleep well, Ang?" she asked casually. He jumped and narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Fine," he said quickly, then hurried off to the other room. Jubilee shrugged.  
  
"What's up with him?" she asked Kurt. Her teammate scratched his ear behind his shades, then brought his hand up before his face and examined his nails.  
  
"Beats me. Lousy date?" Jubilee scowled and punched him in the arm.  
  
"Hey! What'd ya do that for?" She frowned at him and said nothing, turning towards the refrigerator. Kurt leaned forward and smiled. "You like him, don't you?" She shushed him with a hand over his mouth, looking towards the door and praying that Angelo hadn't heard.  
  
"Hush! I do not." He mocked penitence and she backed off, her eyes flashing. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Kurt rolled his eyes and went back to setting out breakfast.  
  
The entire school population of 27 students and five teachers were in and out of the kitchen in less than 35 minutes. Classes started at eight thirty. Another day began at the Massachusetts Academy.  
  
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11:47 AM  
  
She always had trouble paying attention when she heard the birds singing into the wind. Sera sat on the windowsill of the classroom, trying not to listen to the birds calling her, asking her to come fly with them, trying to pay attention to the genetics lecture. The wind rustled through her feathers, occasionally catching a loose one and sending it flying across the room.  
  
There was nothing that bothered Sarah Worthington quite so much as chairs did. Clothes weren't an issue; she'd been making her own shirts since she was a child. But chairs were designed for a certain body type, and Sera did not fit that mold. Her father had been able to fit himself and his large wings into nearly normal clothes and seats, but for her that was not an option. She'd been born with wings, and grown up with them free and unbound.  
  
"Is anyone paying attention?" Kitty Pryde asked the class. A dozen mutants not much younger than she looked back with somewhat guilty eyes. The former X-Man laughed. "If I let you out early, do you promise to be ready for the test on Monday?" The class nodded and grinned with excitement. "Get out of here, then."  
  
Sera smiled and opened the window wide, hefting her bag onto one shoulder and preparing to dive out. She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She ducked back into the room and turned.  
  
"Zander!" she cried happily, leaning forward and kissing his stubbly cheek. She felt his face heat under her lips, and knew he was blushing.  
  
"How do you always know it's me?" he asked softly.  
  
"I just do."  
  
"Meet me later?" he asked shyly. She touched his lips with her fingers and nodded. "After dinner?"  
  
"So early?"  
  
"Lee's going to a movie." She bit her lip in exaggerated naughtiness, making him blush again.  
  
"Roomie goes away so Zander can play?" She poked her head out of the window, her foot on the sill. "After dinner." She kicked off and took to the air, making sure to give the young man a glimpse up her skirt as she went, astonished at herself even as she did.  
  
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2:42 PM  
  
"Liza, you have to let me help you," Franklin cried in frustration. Liza sunk to her knees and held her head between her hands, staring straight up and trying in vain not to cry.  
  
"It's too hard!" Franklin sighed.  
  
"It's alright." Their instructor made his way across the gym floor. "Why don't you go get something to drink." Franklin straightened and smiled. Eduard Jamon sat next to his young pupil until she spoke up.  
  
"It's too hard." Lizel Ward was all of 13 years old, and probably not more than 5 feet tall, with light brown hair combed to cover much of her face. She looked at Jamon a moment, then gazed quickly back at the floor. He could only guess what she saw when she looked at him. Like all of the students at the Massachusetts Academy, Liza was a mutant. Like many of the others, especially the newer ones, she feared her abilities and wished to be 'normal.' Unlike most of the others, she'd taken that a step further by refusing to use her abilities except in the most limited form.  
  
Jamon could understand her reluctance, her disgust. She was a killing machine, nothing less. Her multi-faceted eyes looked something like precious diamonds, but what she saw through them was anything but sparkling. She saw the world in layers, each layer visible, yet transparent, revealing the layer below it. She suffered from migraine headaches, but couldn't close her eyes to block out the images. She could see through her eyelids.  
  
If all Lizel Ward could do was see through things, she wouldn't be at the Massachusetts Academy, the most prestigious of the three Xavier Schools for Gifted Youngsters. If all she could do was see through things, she'd have headaches but she'd be all right. But Liza was a killing machine. What her eyes could see, her mind could remove, and destroy, be it animate or inanimate, human, plant or building. She was one of the most powerful and deadly beings on the planet. She was 13 years old.  
  
She'd come to the school a few weeks before, an emotional wreck. She wasn't much better. No one knew anything about her past. She cried at the slightest thing, and seldom looked down. Because she spent so much time staring at the ceiling, or the sky, some of the other students thought she was crazy, or stupid, but she'd told Jamon's wife Sara that she looked at the sky because it was the only thing she couldn't see through. Jamon didn't quite understand at first, but it had made more and more sense as he thought about it. She could see through anything, and her vision was strong. It took great effort to concentrate on things close to her, but there was nothing to see in the sky.  
  
"Let's try some more fruit, okay?" She glanced quickly at him, and almost smiled.  
  
"You just want fruit salad for dinner again." He laughed and nodded.  
  
"Franklin?" The young boy entered quickly.  
  
"Are we starting again?" he asked.  
  
"Yes," he replied, offering Liza a hand up from the floor. "We'll be working with fruit again." If Franklin was tired of creating oranges and melons, he didn't show it. He simply searched his mind and, grinning, caused a pomegranate to appear on the floor in front of his teammate. She squinted at it, and, almost instantly, the peel exploded off of the fruit and spattered all over the three mutants. She winced. Jamon and Franklin wiped red peel off of themselves.  
  
"Good. Now again, this time slower." He nodded, and Franklin created a banana.  
  
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3:16 PM  
  
"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane," 15-year-old Isobel Cabot read in a clear, gentle voice, "and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here, while I go yonder and pray.' And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zeb… Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.' And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.' And he came to the disciples…"  
  
Angelo Espinosa tried to listen to his classmate reading, but it was hard enough to be in English class under regular circumstances, let alone when he was having a moral dilemma and running on only three hours of sleep. He leaned on his desk and propped his eyes open with his fingers, feeling the skin slip through his hands like so much putty. The girl next to him was eyeing him uneasily, and he realized he was letting slip the control that kept him looking relatively normal, as opposed to a big puddle of gray Chicano.  
  
Damn her! he thought, pinching between his eyes as he concentrated enough to 'pull himself together.' He didn't even like her. She screwed anything with a pulse, and with the circles they ran in, probably some things that didn't. On one hand, he wanted to hit her, to wipe that smug, knowing look off of her face. On the other hand, he wanted to go to beg her to do what she'd done to him last night on the headmistress's desk over and over and…  
  
Ang? Hello? He looked up defensively. Chamber stood above him, looking as puzzled as a guy with only half of a face could look. Class is over, ya know. Angelo ran a hand over his face, feeling the skin stretch and snap back into place as he did.  
  
"Yea, right."  
  
You look like hell, mate. Anything wrong? Angelo shook his head.  
  
"Nuthin. Yea…" He gathered his books and followed his friend out of the classroom. "We have team combat now?" Jonothan nodded.  
  
You sure you okay? I kin tell Ed you're sick if ya want. Angelo thought about it a moment. Getting out of team combat meant he didn't have to see her, and he definitely liked that idea. And it meant he could catch up on some sleep before they went to the movies that night.  
  
"You know, I think that's a good idea. I'll just go lie down for a while."  
  
You still up for a film tonight? He nodded.  
  
"Definitely. Come get me if I'm not up by dinner, okay?" Jonothan nodded. They walked a little further and then parted.  
  
Feel better!   
  
"Thanks man."  
  
Jonothan Starsmore made his way to the locker rooms outside the biosphere, still wondering what was eating Angelo. He figured it was a girl- he could pick up that much from the stray thoughts Angelo was tossing around- but which one? He changed into his uniform and stashed his clothes in a locker, heading into the observation booth. His teammates were already there, all dressed in uniforms that at least slightly resembled each other. All of the students at the Academy had been assigned matching red and yellow uniforms, but almost everyone modified theirs to match their personality or powers.  
  
"Skin isn't feeling well," Chamber told their instructor. Eduard Jamon nodded.  
  
"We'll be skirmishing today. M, Husk, Refrax, you're team one; Jubilee, Hex, Chamber, you're team two. Team one; you have five minutes to hide. The point of the game is evasion. Team two; you'll try to catch your opponents. A tag on the shoulder means they're caught. Powers may not be directed at your opponents, and that goes for both sides, but they may be used in any other ways. Team one ready? Go." 


	4. We All Have Our Weaknesses

Three: We All Have Our Weaknesses (R- adult situations, implied rape)  
  
4:52 PM  
  
Why hasn't the dinner shift reported for work yet? Isobel winced at the strength of the telepathic question, and saw the other students around the library doing the same. Their headmistress had a temper, that was for sure. There was silence for a moment as they recovered from the shout, and then conversation buzzed up again.  
  
"What a mind-witch!" "My ears are ringing." "You see how fast Thom ran outa here?" "She's the only one who could get him to move that fast."  
  
Isobel yawned, and turned back to her book. She'd been trying to finish her English homework for the past hour, with little luck. She was constantly getting distracted by the conversation around her, but she was enjoying it too, and didn't want to leave.  
  
"What are you looking at Athena?" Kai asked. Uma turned quickly back to the two boys.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"You were watching that girl. Defect." Quentin took off his glasses and wiped the lenses on his shirt before putting them down on the table next to his textbook  
  
"You're right 'Gleich," Kai said, grinning at the young girl. Athena shook her head and squirmed in her chair.  
  
"You're so full of it." The boys exchanged a look.  
  
"Watch your mouth, little girl," Ungleich said. "She is quite fascinating, though," he said, gazing over at Isobel Cabot. "She doesn't have an intelligence rating, but that... interesting form of telepathy lets her in on a lot of... potentially useful information."  
  
Isobel felt a strange tingling on the back of her neck. She turned slowly and saw Quentin Essix staring at her. She met his eyes and gasped.  
  
There was darkness. There was pain. There was a tall man with white skin.  
  
"She ran off in a hurry," Kai said softly. Ungleich nodded.  
  
Isobel collapsed outside of the library, shaking violently. She could still see the face in her mind, the face of her teammate's weakness. She forced herself to her feet and moved away from the library. All she could think of was telling someone, anyone, what she'd seen, and getting as far away from Quentin Essix as possible.  
  
"Isobel?" Defect stopped just short of running into one of her teachers, Sarah Jamon. Sara was the only human in the school, and the only instructor who actually was a teacher by profession. "What's wrong dear?" Isobel looked around in something like fear. "Let's go to my office, okay hon?"  
  
"Okay," Isobel said faintly. They walked in silence, as Isobel tried to decide what she was going to say.  
  
"Sit. Now tell me what's been bothering you." Isobel bit her lip and swallowed uneasily.  
  
"It's nothing really. I mean..." She squirmed, wishing she were anywhere else. She didn't want anyone to get in trouble because of her powers, no matter how much she disliked them, and she certainly didn't want Quentin and his friends mad at her. She decided to be as honest as possible. "I was reading in the library and I saw something that scared me. It was stupid, really, I just had to get out of there." Sarah frowned.  
  
"If you saw something that could threaten the school, you should let me know. I understand that you don't want to violate anyone's mental privacy, but if others are in danger..."  
  
"I don't think so, though," Isobel said slowly. "My visions are usually pretty specific. I see weaknesses. When I have flashes like that, like in the library, I'm almost always just seeing the one thing that could most hurt the person I'm looking at." She sighed, and her face looked so sad Sarah just wanted to hug her.  
  
"These flashes..." she began cautiously. Isobel shook her head.  
  
"When it started I couldn't control them at all. Every time I looked at someone, I could see how to hurt them, their weaknesses... everything that was wrong with them." She paused. "I couldn't see anything good about anyone. Everyone was weak. Everyone would fail. It took me a long time to realize I was a mutant. My parents just thought I was a pessimist." She laughed. "'Course, I am, but how could I not be? A pessimist sees the worst in every situation. So do I. Except I'm always right."  
  
Sarah smiled and leaned forward to give the young woman a hug. She asked about Isobel's classes and made her promise to come see her whenever she needed to talk. Isobel headed back to the dorms, hoping her roommate wasn't in their room. She liked Racquel; she just wanted time to herself to think.  
  
Racquel was in the room, but she was sleeping. Isobel liked her because she knew her own weaknesses and was honest about them. Because of that, she didn't mind spending time with a young woman who could see how to destroy her, could reveal her weakness to the world.  
  
Many of the other students didn't like her because they were afraid of her, afraid of what she could see in them. She didn't blame them. It would take time to prove herself to the others, time to prove that she wasn't going to use her knowledge to hurt or humiliate them. She always had to prove herself though, and there were still those who went out of their way to avoid her.  
  
"Are you sulking again?" Racquel asked. Isobel jumped.  
  
"I thought you were sleeping." Racquel stretched and tucked her arms behind her head.  
  
"I was. I had back-to-back combat sessions this morning. Thought I was gonna pass out." She laughed. "I think Banshee forgets that even though I'm strong, I'm not invulnerable." Racquel was a super-woman. She was more than 6 feet tall, and the strongest student at the school. Physically, she was in her mid-20s and in better health than most Olympic athletes. Mentally, emotionally and chronologically she was 15 years old.  
  
"Are you going to the movie tonight?" Isobel asked, carefully keeping distracted with other things, and keeping her expression mild and pleasant when she looked at Racquel.  
  
"No way! You know how I hate having people stare at me."  
  
"But it's just Snow Valley, and you hardly ever go out. Besides, you'll be with all of us, and it's Monday night. The theater will be empty except for us." Isobel glanced at her friend with a smile. "Even I'm going."  
  
"I'll think about it." Isobel turned and sat down at her desk as Racquel stood to get dressed. The young mutant codenamed Defect had seen what haunted her roommate, her friend, and it gave her nightmares at night.  
  
Racquel Mann had chosen for herself the codename Medusa. She was one of those who saw her mutation as a curse, and frankly, Isobel could understand quite well. In the course of six months in late 1998, the 12-year-old girl from Vancouver had hit a growth spurt. In and of itself of course, this was not unusual. Your average growth spurt turns a child into an awkward, sulking adolescent. Racquel's growth spurt turned her into a 25-year-old woman with uncontrollable pheromones that overwhelmed the inhibitions of those around her, no matter their gender, no matter their sexual orientation.  
  
*** "Stop her!" ***  
  
Isobel had been there when members of the X-Men rescued Racquel from the mob that was tearing her apart. She'd only learned later that they had been too late.  
  
*** "Hey baby. Come'ere." ***  
  
They'd been too late. Medusa had a secondary mutation of incredible strength. It hadn't developed at the same time as her other 'talents.'  
  
*** "Leave me alone!" she cried. Racquel looked down as she ran, awkward on her feet, vision blurred with tears. She tripped and fell forward, throwing her arms up to protect her face as she went headfirst through a store window. An alarm bean to wail throughout the darkened store, frightening her even more. She clutched her head with hands that were much too large (not my body!) and tried to get to her feet (not my body! Wake up; you have to wake up youhavetowakeup!). The sound of breaking glass told her that they were coming (get up; wake up; get up!)  
  
They were silent now, except for the crunching of the broken glass under their feet. No more lewd comments, no more catcalls.  
  
"Please, John," she cried, "What are you doing? Please, don't you recognize me?" Pain shot through her when she tried to lift her arm and she collapsed. She crawled franticly back, but they were on her, holding her, tearing at her. "Please, I'm your friend! Why are you doing this? It's me! It's me!"  
  
A police car arrived, lights shining through the broken window onto the three people inside.  
  
"Help me!" she screamed. "Please!" Two officers got out of the car, guns out. They walked carefully towards the store.  
  
"Police!" one cried. "Come out slowly." The two men didn't stop. They couldn't hear or think or stop. Racquel looked up with desperate eyes filled with blood and tears. The officer looked down at her and his expression changed. He wasn't going to help her, she thought.  
  
"Please!" She got an arm loose and smashed her hand against the side of John's head. His ear was bleeding, and he didn't stop. She lashed out with arms and legs and they didn't stop; they took her blows without wincing. And then she was pinned and John was moving away holding his head and the officers were on her and she was screaming and utterly helpless. ***  
  
"They had to turn off a part of my mind," Racquel had said on the first night she and Isobel had been roommates. "They didn't know how to stop my power, so one of them just reached in and click! Just like turning off a light. Didn't work all the way, 'course. Some of it's just there. I don't like people looking at me. Like they're looking right through my clothes. I want to scream I'm just a kid. But I'm not. I don't know what I am. You see people's weaknesses, right? Well you don't have to tell me. I know my weakness. I could go crazy, just like that. Just like that, and I'm gone. Then you turn my powers on and throw me to the mob. Even super-strength wouldn't help me then. Just like that." 


	5. The Distance Between Us

Four: The Distance Between Us [NC-17- language, consensual m/f sex]  
  
8:36 PM  
  
Zander's codename was Maud'dib. It meant 'Little Mouse' and was the name of a character in one of his favorite books. He waited outside of the main building trying to be patient. Now and then he caught himself crouching, animal-like, and forced himself to stand straight, reminding himself that he was a human being, a man. He picked restlessly at the vines growing on the wall of the building, pulling them away from the wall and looking closely at the small hairs along the stem, marveling at how the plant had managed to grow straight up a brick wall. Then he shredded the leaves with his sharp claws and wondered if she was coming at all.  
  
He ran his hands through his short hair, hating it and hating himself. The only time he didn't hate himself was when she was with him, but that made it all the worse when she was gone.  
  
"Good God, there's so much self-pity coming from over here I can just about see it."  
  
"Fuck off Thom."  
  
"Shut up already, Zander." The tall young man from the west coast leaned against the building and lit a cigarette. "Want one?" Zander shook his head. "Yea, I bet Sera hates that nasty cigarette taste."  
  
"Go away."  
  
"Like hell I will. I got every right ta be here."  
  
"And I got every right to rip your throat out." Thom laughed, and blew smoke out his nose.  
  
"And I'm sure you can too."  
  
"Are you two quite finished?" Sera shouted, poking her head off of the top of the building. She wore her uniform, solid mask pulled down over her eyes. "I can come back if you wanna like, pee all over each other or something." Thom laughed.  
  
"Just leaving. See ya man. Sera." He lifted his arm and waved at her before wandering slowly off. Sera extended her wings and glided smoothly to the ground, landing confidently less than a foot away from Zander."  
  
"How do you do that?" he asked. She smiled and pulled him in for a deep kiss.  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"Fly so confidently. I mean, you're…"  
  
"Blind? I hadn't noticed. It's getting dark." She took his hand. "Come on. Neva's working with Jasmine-Nerise until nine and then they're going to the movie, and they won't be back until at least one. She promised." She pulled him after her and he couldn't help but laugh. He didn't think about anything anymore except her. All he could think about was getting her alone.  
  
The wing of the Academy used as dorms were nearly empty, with most of the students either studying or socializing. Sera lived near the end of the hall with a young girl named Neva Armenoff, a mutant witch codenamed Tattoo for the complicated markings that appeared on her body when she cast her spells. Her side of the room was covered with art, strange drawings and watercolors of the images that came into her mind and appeared during her spells.  
  
"You're lucky you're blind," Zander said as he closed the door and came face to face with one of Neva's more recent pieces. "That girl has serious issues." Sera smiled.  
  
"I have serious issues." She pulled off her wrist guards and set them on top of her bureau. Everything had it's place in her room, where the floor was kept impeccably clean, and you could tell exactly which surfaces were Sera's and which were Neva's by the amount of crap piled on all of Neva's possible free space, and the necessary order of Sera's belongings. She strode towards him and took him in her arms, leaning into him and raising her face towards his. "You think I have issues, don't you?" He laughed, and tightened his arms around her back.  
  
"You want issues?"  
  
"I want you." She kissed him as she had before, only harder and longer. He returned the kiss with passion, his tongue finding hers and twining about it. She moaned low in her throat and pushed him back until he was sitting on her bed. He pulled back from her slightly and pulled off her mask. She opened her eyes, pupils unnaturally pale and slightly pinkish. He smoothed her curly hair, cut short around her face and dyed dark blue.  
  
She rubbed her fingers over her face and sighed. He started to ask her something but she silenced him with another kiss, twining herself around him as she sat down in his lap. He held her waist in his hands and amazed at how tiny she was. She made a trail of kisses down his neck and settled at his collarbone, licking gently and then biting lightly. Her wings flexed slightly and settled against her back. He ran his hand up her back and lightly stroked the base of her wings, where he knew she was especially sensitive. She trembled and laughed.  
  
Her shirts were all cut low in the back and fastened up the front. She made a lot of her own clothing, a good alternative to shopping in the 'petite with wings' section at Macy's. Zander unfastened her uniform top slowly, nervous though this was not his first time with her. She had been self-conscious at first, surprising him. She was the brave one, the one who threw herself into new situations. She was the one had kissed him the second time they'd met and whispered naughty things in his ear during genetics. She'd been self-conscious with him because in some ways she was more avian than mammal. She didn't have any breasts.  
  
Now he kissed her smooth chest, his arms playing first with her feathers, then with her hair. She inhaled slowly and sighed. She tore at his tee shirt with her hands, almost taking his face off when she pulled it over his head. He laughed at her sudden ferocity, causing her to growl, playfully indignant, and throw herself across his body.  
  
"Who's laughing now?" she asked as she straddled his chest. Her eyes stared slightly above his head, something he was used to at this point in their relationship. He reached up and cradled her face in his dark, hairy hand.  
  
"You are so beautiful," he said softly, voice catching in his throat. Her eyes rolled slightly. He put both of his hands on her waist and held her as tight as he dared.  
  
"I'm not going to break, you know."  
  
"Of course not. Because you don't have hollow bones or anything, and I don't have super strength or anything." She laughed and slapped his chest gently.  
  
"Shut up." She straightened, lying flat on top of him with on leg between his, her bare chest pressing against his. He was so happy he wanted to die. "Now if the others could just see you like this."  
  
"What, half naked and tangled around a beautiful woman?"  
  
"No, being sweet." She kissed him, thrusting her tongue into his mouth. He growled deep in his throat, and the tightness in his pants became painful. He squirmed his hips slightly, trying to get more comfortable in his loose jeans, now twisted uncomfortably. She felt him moving and blushed lightly. "Let me help." She smiled and rolled half off of him. She grabbed the sides of his pants with both hands and pulled, straightening his pants. Then she sat back up. "Better?"  
  
"You're being a tease." She opened her mouth wide in shock.  
  
"I am not a tease!" He smirked. "Are you smirking?"  
  
"Yes. There isn't any way out of that comment that doesn't end up great for me." She laughed, and flapped her wings enough to hop down to the end of the bed. Kneeling, she slowly unzipped his jeans and worked them down off of his hips. He helped, kicking them to the floor. She sat back on her feet and turned her head to one side.  
  
"Some days I wish so much I could see." He didn't reply. She traced a path up his legs with her hands, tickling the inside of his thighs in a way that didn't make him laugh at all, making her way slowly, teasingly, to his waist, where the head of his erection poked out of his boxers. She felt around his penis with her hands, her eyes closed and an expression on deep concentration on her face. He growled again and leaned back on the bed, hating to take his eyes from her face but wanting to enjoy the sensations she was giving him.  
  
She ran her fingers through his wiry pubic hair, then laid her hands gently on his hips and took him in her mouth. He gasped and put one shaking hand on her shoulder. All he could see were her wings, a sea of white feathers gently bobbing in the dim light.  
  
"Oh Sera," he said roughly, grasping her tighter. She giggled, tickling him most unusually and mercilessly. "Stop!" he cried. She did, bending her face towards him and wiping her mouth.  
  
"What? Didn't you like it?"  
  
"Yes, but it tickled so bad when you laughed." She collapsed into giggles again, falling across him. They kissed again, deeply, becoming serious, pulling as tightly together as his boxers and her tight uniform pants would allow. He undid the back zipper on her pants, thrusting a hand inside of them to gently pinch her behind. She had to untangle herself from him in order to get the pants off, but he stopped her. "Let me." She stood beside the bed as he pulled off her pants and underwear, leaving her standing naked there beside him.  
  
She was perfect. She was so tiny, no fat anywhere on her. Her hair was messed and light brown roots were showing above the dark blue. There was no hair anywhere else on her body, but light down grew on her upper arms and her thighs. Her chest was totally flat and muscular, and she had strongly defined muscles in her arms, shoulders and back. He knew she was nothing like other young women, but to him she was perfect, and looking at her standing there drove him crazy. He stood and put his arms around her, kissing her over and over again until they were both breathless, and she was supporting herself with her wings against a wall. She threw a leg around his, amazing at how sturdy he felt, how tall and rough and strong. He was a good deal taller than her, and covered with coarse hair from his head to his toes.  
  
As they kissed, she worked his boxers off of his hips, leaving him as naked as she. She ran her hands over all of his body that she could touch, as he sucked at her neck, leaving behind what she knew would tomorrow be a line of bruises and teeth marks. The first time he'd seen the result of their lovemaking he'd been furious with himself and had held back the next time until she's beat him around the head and forced him to be more aggressive. It had taken time, but they'd worked out the right balance of strength and gentleness so that she enjoyed herself, but wasn't hurt.  
  
She pushed him forward and they fell back on the bed together. She pushed her knee firmly up between his legs as they kissed, feeling herself grow moist and warm. She ran a hand between her legs, bringing wet fingers up to her mouth. Zander pushed himself up on his elbows and licked her fingers too, their tongues meeting, the touch melding into another kiss. She felt at the side of the bed for her table, knocking over a pile of books that fell to the carpet with a dull thud. She opened the top drawer and pulled out a condom. She opened the wrapping carefully as he watched, his hand almost idly stroking his erection.  
  
They had to be careful with condoms. She couldn't see if they slipped, and he could easily tear them with his claws. She fitted it on him, giving his balls a squeeze when she'd finished. Then she lifted herself above him, his hands around her waist. With one hand, she guided him into her as she lowered herself down, her hips clenching and shifting until she sat once on his hips. It still hurt a little, but it was a wonderful hurt. As always, she was filled with a longing to look into his eyes, but the feeling passed quickly. She reached out with her mind, brushing his emotions lightly, waiting for permission, and then establishing a link with him. Now all the pleasure, or all the discomfort, that one felt was felt by the other as well.  
  
She lifted up slightly and thrust back down, testing their physical and emotional connection. He felt himself inside her body and inside her mind all at once. She lifted herself carefully up again, and established a rhythm. He held her waist, sometimes lifting her, sometimes stroking her legs, or hips, or arms. He felt her pleasure mixing with his own until he couldn't tell which was which, and that was the most wonderful of all. It didn't matter which of them was pleasured, because they both felt it, and they reveled in the feelings of connection and passion and joy.  
  
"Sera?" he asked later as they lay together, bodies dripping with sweat. She raised her head slightly from his chest.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Is this love?" She smiled.  
  
"Everything can be love." Zander scratched her head lightly with a clawed finger.  
  
"What do you mean?" The young woman gazed at him with empty eyes.  
  
"What do you mean?" He rolled onto his back, tucking his arms underneath his head.  
  
"I don't know." He was silent for a while. She felt his eyes on her face, and reached out with her mind to touch his emotions. He did love her, but he was confused. He wanted her, but he didn't want to hurt her. He held her in awe, but was uncertain of her motives in dating him.  
  
"You should be the empath," she said, reaching forward and running her hand across his rough skin, along the inside of his arm and along the side of his head. She felt his face tighten into a smile. "It would make life much easier."  
  
"Why do you love me?"  
  
"Why do you fish for compliments?"  
  
"Because I'm not the empath in this relationship." She laughed out loud. "You're beautiful when you laugh."  
  
"You're beautiful when you're happy." Her pale eyes moved slightly, as if tracking something only she could see. He laughed.  
  
"How would you know?"  
  
"I know."  
  
"Have you ever been able to see?" he asked, brushing a feather away from his shoulder.  
  
"Stop it!" she cried. "That tickles."  
  
"Ha! She tells me that I'm tickling her. The girl with the 15 foot wings going up my nose says that I'm tickling her."  
  
"Hush you." She extended her left wing halfway and shook it as one would shake an arm that had fallen asleep. "Yes, I've been able to see. Telepaths can let me see through their eyes. David used to do that sometimes."  
  
"David?"  
  
"He was a patient on Muir Island. We grew up together. One of his personalities was a telepath, and he'd show me things."  
  
"Do you like having wings?"  
  
"I've never not had wings."  
  
"You could have had them removed." She shuddered.  
  
"That's a horrible thought. How would you like to have your arms removed? Or your legs?"  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"It's all right. You didn't mean anything by it." She rolled onto her stomach, taking care not to disturb him too much. "Do you think I talk too much?" He laughed.  
  
"I like the way you talk. It's you." She smiled but the smile was melancholy.  
  
"I've been feeling kinda out of place here."  
  
"I've been here for two years and I still feel out of place. You've only been here a few months, and you already have tons of friends." She shook her head.  
  
"It's not that. I love everyone here. You're great, and Maria is great, and I like Neva a lot and even Jasmine." She felt him tense slightly. "You've slept with her, haven't you?" He bit his lip, momentarily forgetting how sharp his teeth were. She winced. "I felt that." She sat up, tucking the sheet around her waist. He remained on his back, lazily admiring her every movement. She brought her fingers together into a circle, tracing a rune on the back of her hand. She touched his lip, instantly closing the wound. Then she smiled naughtily and licked the blood away from his face and her fingers.  
  
"Sera!" he exclaimed. "I thought you were an angel, not a vampire." She grinned.  
  
"I've sucked things worse than your blood. I don't care if you've slept with Jasmine-Nerise," she continued, settling back down on the bed next to him. "You're mine now." Zander lay still, lightly licking his healed lip, tasting her on his skin. She waited a moment for him to say anything before going on. "I think she's pretty damn hot."  
  
"Not as hot as you."  
  
"I think you're pretty hot yourself." He tensed.  
  
"You only say that because you don't know what I look like." She frowned.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" He ignored the warning tone in her voice and went on.  
  
"I mean, I'm like the ugliest guy at this school. None of the other girls would go near me with a ten foot pole."  
  
"So what? How many girls do you need? I think you're wonderful, and smart, and strong, and beautiful."  
  
"You wouldn't think that if you weren't blind. You would be going out with me if you weren't blind."  
  
"What?" she said, her voice raised sharply. She tossed the covers back and stood up quickly, brushing him with her feathers as she did. "How could you say that? How…" She was so angry her feathers were literally bristling.  
  
"Sera, I didn't…"  
  
"Yes, you did. Get out."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You heard me perfectly well. Get the fuck out of my room!" He didn't move, so, pulling a sarong off of the floor to cover herself, she went to the door and threw it open. "NOW!" He opened his mouth, trying to think of some way to fix things. Furious, she reached out and touched his emotions, giving him a hit of the rage and hurt she was feeling. "I can't believe you think I'm so shallow."  
  
"I didn't say that!"  
  
"Please go." She bent her head and stood until he rose from the bed, dressed, gathered his things and came to the door.  
  
"Sera..." he pleaded with her. "Please? I'm sorry."  
  
"Just go," she said in a whisper. And he did. She closed the door behind him and locked it again. She walked to her bed, pulling the sarong tighter about her as she sat. There was a throbbing right behind her eye sockets and tightness in her throat. Pulling her knees to her chest, she tucked her wings close around her and lay on her side, trying to sleep and forget. 


End file.
